Big news. The Senate is planning to vote on NSA surveillance reform this week. If the USA FREEDOM Act (S. 2685) passes, it will be the first law to limit the NSA's spying power in almost thirty years.

We’re asking friends of EFF to call their Senators today and urge them to pass the strongest bill possible. Not in the United States? Sign our petition against mass surveillance instead.

The new Senate version of the USA FREEDOM Act would:

• Rein in the NSA's illegal collection of millions of Americans' telephone records by amending one of the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, Section 215.
• Create a special advocate whom the secret surveillance court can appoint to argue for civil liberties and privacy in proceedings that raise novel or significant legal issues.
• Provide new reporting requirements about surveillance, so that the NSA is forced to tell us how many people are actually being surveilled under its programs, including the program that allows the NSA to see the contents of Americans' communications without a warrant.

Hundreds of thousands of people from across the political spectrum have called on Congress to stop mass spying by the NSA. Next week, it all comes to a head. But it won’t be smooth sailing: we expect NSA apologists to try to weaken the bill with last-minute amendments. That’s why we need people who care about privacy to call their senators and demand real reform. Make the call. 

The USA FREEDOM Act isn’t everything we want in surveillance reform. Real reform means ending mass Internet surveillance of people in the US and abroad. It also means overhauling the broken classification system, which has hidden from public oversight government surveillance practices that affect us all. The USA FREEDOM Act isn’t a solution to all these problems, but it is a strong step on the path to reform. It will put in place measures that can help rein in NSA spying today and prove to Congress that there is a powerful movement of people working to end mass surveillance.

The vote is this week.¹ Let’s make our voices heard in Congress.

Thank you,

Rainey Reitman
EFF Activism Director
Support our work.
 

¹ The Senate will be taking up this issue in two votes, both scheduled for this week. The first is a “cloture vote,” basically a vote on whether the Senate will consider the USA FREEDOM Act at all. It takes 60 votes to pass cloture, and we expect that vote to happen Tuesday. The second vote, which may come Wednesday or Thursday, will be the actual vote on the USA FREEDOM Act. There may be amendments to the bill before the vote, so we’ll be watching closely to see what happens.